Pursuing the work of Rita Thalmann in Être Femme Sous le IIIe Reich, the essays in this volume examine the history of women’s movements during the Nazi era. The writers included here, representing a wide range of interests and backgrounds, review the various interpretations of this period given by feminist historiography today. In doing so, they avoid the pitfalls of the rhetoric of heroism ("all women acted heroically"), of martyrdom ("they were all victims") or of resistance ("they all resisted"). The authors’ underlying assumption is that if the perspective of gender can cast light on the way we "read" certain situations and individual destinies, then, in turn, the history of the twentieth century, including the history of feminism with its upheavals and fractures, can help us to understand what is at stake in feminist studies as reflected in contemporary discussions.

Liliane Kandel is a sociologist and feminist. She took part in the early activities of the MLF (Mouvement de Libération des Femmes) and participated, with Simone de Beauvoir, in the "Chroniques du sexisme ordinaire". She taught at the University of Paris 7-Denis Diderot and directed the university’s Research Centre for Feminist Studies.

She is the editor of this volume which includes contributions by C. Bard, C. Bouillot, R. Bridenthal, F. Collin, L. Crips, S. Dayan-Herzbrun, M.-J. Dhavernas, N. Gabriel, A. Grossmann, A.-M. Houdebine-Gravaud, L. Kandel, M. Kaplan, C. Koonz, F. Leclerc, C. Lesselier, T. Levin, S. Leydesdorff, C. Maignien, B. Scheiger, G. Schwarz, P. Pasteur, L. Siegele-Wenschkewitz, K. Windaus-Walser and M. Wendling.